We supplied some camera equipment to up and coming DOP Phil Arntz for his latest short film titled ‘Sophie’. Phil kindly took some time out to write some words about the shoot.

‘I always played with the idea of creating a WW2 drama mixed with a pre war segment. When the script was finished and all the actors casted and a crew assembled, it was time to look on the technical side of things.

The Sony FS100 was chosen by me as the camera for the film. I picked this camera for a couple of reasons. First of all, I own the camera, but this wasn’t the biggest argument. We shot the complete first day handheld and the second day mostly on Steadicam, Kessler Sliders and Tripod. The FS100 is great for all these shooting methods. It is extremely light and comfortable for shoulder use, balances nicely on a Steadicam and is compact enough to be comfortably used on sliders/tripods. I own a set of lenses for the FS100, however I wanted to go the extra mile and get the best possible footage out of the FS100. My plan was to rent out a set of Carl Zeiss Compact Primes and to do this, I called up Video Europe, recommended by a friend of mine, who is a also a Director of Photography. Video Europe was fast to response, offering a CP.2 package for a great price!

Shooting with the lenses was an absolute pleasure. They are incredibly sharp and the overall look of the image is incredible. The Zeiss EF Mount lenses were adapted with a Canon to Sony NEX Metabones adapter which worked a treat. We used a Preston Follow Focus motor on the lens for all the steadicam shots and it worked nicely! The focus throw of the CP.2′s is great for precise focusing and the drag of the focus gear is nice. Focus won’t slip when you don’t want to change it. In some shots, the smooth aperture also made our shoot a lot easier. There were minor exposure changes in the shots themselves and we couldn’t have accomplished that without the smooth aperture. On top of all this, Video Europe also supplied us with an Arri MB-15 Clip On Mattebox. I was always a bit careful with clip-on matteboxes, because they are often a lot more flimsy than the rod mounted ones, but the Arri has to rank as my favourite mattebox from now on! The filter stages are rock solid, the construction is great and it is very light. The mattebox helped us cut out a lot of unwanted flares and allowed us to shoot with a wide open aperture in broad daylight, due to the Tiffen ND.3, ND.6 and ND.9.

I want to thank Video Europe for hiring us out their gear and for going the extra mile with their customer service. If you want to hire kit in London, this is the company to contact! Very nice and genuine guys, who ensure that you are happy with your kit!’

Please visit Phil’s website to see all his work www.philarntz.com